desiring the vision of God..
what will it be like? the understanding can know no more. the will can will nothing other. the emotions of joy, delight and love are all in their proper center. for all good is in its chief good. as all the rivers of the world come from the ocean, as you bring a great ship into a narrow channel, she cannot swim or sail but runs aground. but give it sea room and depth and she can turn and sail before the wind. so it is here. all that delights you in earthly things can never satisfy you. for all of your desires are in God. the comforts you have here are only drops inflaming, not satisfying, the appetites of your soul but the lamb will lead you to fountains of living water. (john flavel)
we want something in all of our other passions that can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. (c.s. lewis)
for if we take the imagery of scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the morning star and cause us to put on the splendor of the sun. then we may surmise that the ancient myths and modern poetry, so false as history, will be true as prophecy. at present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door, we discern the freshness and purity of the morning but they do not make us fresh and pure. we cannot mingle with the splendors we see, but all the leaves of the new testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. some day, god willing, we will get in. when human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then we will put on the glory, or rather the greater glory of which nature is only the first sketch. (timothy keller)
